Trump VS COVID-19 Threat

[angelo]

Well, considering you haven't actually provided an example of Obama apologising, I guess you're right. This entire subject is ridiculous. What did you think it proves again?

Is that Because Obongo did the apologising? Why not admit that Obongo was a weak leader who was willing to push the US and Israel over the cliff in order to appease the Iranian mullahs in order to get his " Iranian nuclear deal " a done deal. A deal that a strong leader like the Trump would never accede to!

Okay, so the Iran nuclear deal was a bad idea because... Why? You think Iran SHOULD have nuclear weapons? You know there was broad consensus that Iran was fulfilling it's obligations under that agreement until Trump Threw it in the trash right? Iran has NO good reason not to pursue nuclear tech now. N. Korea style deterrence is their only option now. Thanks to Trump.

Trump is a fool. Obama was a leader who could actually close a deal that benefited Israel's security needs.

Only a fool or a naive weak idiot like Obuma would think the mullahs would not enrich uranium into weapons grade. The CIA, Mossad, even the Saudis told him it was a very bad deal. HTF can anyone negotiate with an ideology that hates your guts and wishes only to destroy you! The Iranian mullahs were laughing their heads off, and also proved to the rest of the Islamic world that America and the EU was weak and ready to submit to Islam.

 

[Elixir]

Only a fool or a naive weak idiot like Obuma would think the mullahs would not enrich uranium into weapons grade.

Iran was not enriching Uranium and was in full compliance with the agreement they signed, until the moron you so adore broke the agreement. When they resumed enriching uranium they announced it, and inspections continued due to continued participation by the EU.
Only a fool or a propaganda-soaked weak idiot would think that the Iran situation is less volatile with Jabba the Antagonizer fucking up the situation.

 

[angelo]

Only a fool or a naive weak idiot like Obuma would think the mullahs would not enrich uranium into weapons grade.

Iran was not enriching Uranium and was in full compliance with the agreement they signed, until the moron you so adore broke the agreement. When they resumed enriching uranium they announced it, and inspections continued due to continued participation by the EU.
Only a fool or a propaganda-soaked weak idiot would think that the Iran situation is less volatile with Jabba the Antagonizer fucking up the situation.

Yea, yea, sure they were. That's why every leader of every Western nation applauded the useless Iran deal. And are now at their wits end on how to salvage some semblance of it. The Iranian people are led by fanatics who the biggest sponsors of terrorism in middle East and the world.
But to get this thread back on topic.

 

[funinspace]

The avoidable but not avoided problems of the USA, including (but certainly not limited to) the massive death toll due to the dismantling of the systems intended to reduce the impact of future pandemics on the US, is the fault of the President.

That's the President's job - to make the hard decisions, and be held accountable for their results.

With great power comes great responsibility. Trump wants the former without the latter, but it doesn't work that way.

To whine about people holding the President accountable for his nation's problems is to miss the entire point - it's his fucking job to be accountable. If he doesn't like it, he shouldn't have taken the job in the first place.

https://www.rawstory.com/2020/05/an...mp-failed-to-protect-us-from-the-coronavirus/

Anatomy of a man-made disaster: 320 ways Donald Trump failed to protect us from the coronavirus

...
This indifference manifested with Trump’s first budget to Congress. Though the administration found money for big increases in the already-bloated defense budget and passed a $1.5 trillion tax cut overwhelmingly tilted to the 1% later that year, Trump’s minions cut funding (2) for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the agency tasked with protecting public health in the face of the opiate epidemic, AIDS, flu, and infectious outbreaks.
...

Trump has from the start been destroying the US system and programs for dealing with possible pandemics. Again and again. With help from the GOP members of Congress. Our lack of preparedness is not "just one of the things that happen" with no blame to be assigned for our lack of preparedness. Trump gets full credit for all of his failures. Trump was the wrong person in the wrong place at the wrong time doing the wrong things for wrong reasons.

Hopefully, after Trump is flushed out of office in November, Biden can lead us it a decade long program to undo the damage Trump and the GOP have done to out ability to deal with pandemics. And US voters will have learned a sobering lessons about voting for know-nothing Republican presidents.

Another good part of the article, tied back with Clownstick removing a couple dozen other US health officials embedded in China.

Another major (and unforced) administration error was revealed by journalist Marisa Taylor, who reported that “Several months before the coronavirus pandemic began, the Trump administration eliminated a key American public health position in Beijing intended to help detect disease outbreaks in China.”

According to Taylor, “the American disease expert, a medical epidemiologist embedded in China’s disease control agency, left her post in July [2019]

Or maybe when the State Dept. worked with France to return around 200 Americans from an badly Covid-19 infected cruise line, but just let them wander out into Atlanta's airport to find their own way home.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

Only a fool or a naive weak idiot like Obuma would think the mullahs would not enrich uranium into weapons grade.

Iran was not enriching Uranium and was in full compliance with the agreement they signed, until the moron you so adore broke the agreement. When they resumed enriching uranium they announced it, and inspections continued due to continued participation by the EU.
Only a fool or a propaganda-soaked weak idiot would think that the Iran situation is less volatile with Jabba the Antagonizer fucking up the situation.

Unproven. The agreement had a glaring loophole: From a practical standpoint it did absolutely nothing about Iran simply building a new facility and doing what it wants.

 

[Deepak]

Only a fool or a naive weak idiot like Obuma would think the mullahs would not enrich uranium into weapons grade.

Iran was not enriching Uranium and was in full compliance with the agreement they signed, until the moron you so adore broke the agreement. When they resumed enriching uranium they announced it, and inspections continued due to continued participation by the EU.
Only a fool or a propaganda-soaked weak idiot would think that the Iran situation is less volatile with Jabba the Antagonizer fucking up the situation.

Unproven. The agreement had a glaring loophole: From a practical standpoint it did absolutely nothing about Iran simply building a new facility and doing what it wants.

Sophism. The only way know whether they're building a new facility with or without the deal is through surveillance.

There's no conceivable way to word a deal such that this isn't the case. Oh wait, no they should have said 'this deal is voided if the other party violates the terms of the deal'

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Only a fool or a naive weak idiot like Obuma would think the mullahs would not enrich uranium into weapons grade.

Iran was not enriching Uranium and was in full compliance with the agreement they signed, until the moron you so adore broke the agreement. When they resumed enriching uranium they announced it, and inspections continued due to continued participation by the EU.
Only a fool or a propaganda-soaked weak idiot would think that the Iran situation is less volatile with Jabba the Antagonizer fucking up the situation.

Unproven. The agreement had a glaring loophole: From a practical standpoint it did absolutely nothing about Iran simply building a new facility and doing what it wants.

Loophole? Try derail! This isn't a thread on the Iranian Nuclear agreement. angelo, as usual, is derailing.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

Unproven. The agreement had a glaring loophole: From a practical standpoint it did absolutely nothing about Iran simply building a new facility and doing what it wants.

Sophism. The only way know whether they're building a new facility with or without the deal is through surveillance.

There's no conceivable way to word a deal such that this isn't the case. Oh wait, no they should have said 'this deal is voided if the other party violates the terms of the deal'

Except the treaty gave no ability to check suspected new nuclear facilities. All Iran had to do is say it wasn't a nuclear facility and the world could do nothing.

 

[Deepak]

Unproven. The agreement had a glaring loophole: From a practical standpoint it did absolutely nothing about Iran simply building a new facility and doing what it wants.

Sophism. The only way know whether they're building a new facility with or without the deal is through surveillance.

There's no conceivable way to word a deal such that this isn't the case. Oh wait, no they should have said 'this deal is voided if the other party violates the terms of the deal'

Except the treaty gave no ability to check suspected new nuclear facilities. All Iran had to do is say it wasn't a nuclear facility and the world could do nothing.

Nonsense. The world could do anything it could do now.

Or to put it a different way: offer up your ideal wording that just can't be. "Iran can't lie - no taksies backsies, cross my heart, hope to die, stick a needle in my eye"? This is a thread about Trump and his incompetent response to Covid 19 and you're here complaining that the Iran deal didn't include a clause you wouldn't trust even if it could be effectively worded and was agreed to in the deal?

The deal's already dead. Iran remains a nuclear threat. The only option if they go down that route is war.

 

[lpetrich]

POLITICO on Twitter: "BREAKING: Trump announced the U.S. is officially leaving the World Health Organization in the middle of a pandemic.
WHO is currently coordinating international vaccine and drug trials to fight #Covid19 https://t.co/ZWiXlXbcNs" / Twitter
then
POLITICO on Twitter: "Trump said he’s making good on his threat to leave WHO, which he says failed to raise the alarm over #Covid19.
The U.S. has been the largest funder of the United Nations’ health body, which is organizing worldwide vaccine & drug trials to fight the virus https://t.co/vV7wGHVbE1" / Twitter
noting
Trump announces U.S. withdrawal from the World Health Organization - POLITICO

President Donald Trump on Friday said he would make good on his threat to withdraw from the World Health Organization — an unprecedented move that could undermine the global coronavirus response and make it more difficult to stamp out other disease threats.

Trump has criticized the United Nations health agency for failing to quickly sound the alarm when the novel virus emerged and accused it of helping China cover up the threat it posed. "Countless lives have been taken and profound economic hardship has been inflicted all around the globe," Trump said in a brief statement from the White House.

Trump's announcement was quickly panned by health experts, who claimed it would set back global efforts to track and defeat a virus that's already killed more than 360,000 people and sickened nearly 6 million. But the move has been cheered by Trump's base, which is distrustful of international bodies.

I'd like the Biden campaign and the Lincoln Project to compare Trump to Anthony Fremont in Twilight Zone "It's a Good Life".

I like this reaction:
Zina Spezakis for Congress NJ9 on Twitter: "Lunatic" / Twitter

 

[lpetrich]

Trump keeps taking pages from Joe McCarthy’s playbook - The Washington Post

One of the biggest surprises of Donald Trump’s presidency has been the hidebound conservatism of the former Democrat and occasional liberal, who changed his party affiliation six times and whose far-right credentials came under constant fire during the 2016 primaries. Even today, amid the covid-19 pandemic, there remains hope he might strike a game-changing infrastructure deal with Democrats or otherwise defy party dogma in the stimulus measures being considered.

But these expectations were and are castles in the air, given the way Trump is following word for word the playbook of Sen. Joe McCarthy. While America remembers McCarthy as its iciest of cold warriors, he wasn’t always such. In fact the Wisconsinite was one of history’s most shameless political converts, flip-flopping not just from Democrat to Republican, but from flaming New Dealer to icon of the Republican right. Among the lessons Trump has taken from McCarthy, one is most resonant: to be believed, converts must become fanatics. In this regard, the president has outdone the notorious senator in the way he panders to his Republican base with baldfaced lies and bare-knuckled assaults, even in a moment of national crisis.

Author Larry Tye then followed Tail Gunner Joe's career. He ran for District Attorney of Shawano County in 1936, and ran as a fanatical Democrat. But he lost about 2 to 1. So he looked for some nonpartisan office, and he ran for circuit judge in 1939. He won. In 1946, he ran for the US Senate as a "stalwart" conservative Republican, and he won. His most audacious bit of opportunism was in that office.

En route to a Lincoln Day Dinner in the Democratic stronghold of Wheeling, W.Va., it came to the senator like a bolt of lightning: Anticommunism was just the issue to go after his old Socialist-coddling confederates, grab the media spotlight and prove himself to his new conservative allies.

Like the 205 Commies in the State Department.

Attorney Roy Cohn was a link between JMC and Trump - he learned well from JMC and Trump learned from him.

Like McCarthy, Trump has proved himself a genius at feigning evidence to support his assertions, whether it was claiming the covid-19 crisis would blow over in a few days, or touting a purported miracle drug to fight it. Attacked, bullies like McCarthy and Trump aim a wrecking ball at their assailants. When one charge against a manufactured enemy is exposed as hollow, they lob a fresh bombshell. If the news is bad, they call the reporters liars. Through endless, mind-numbing repetition, Trump’s fictions, like McCarthy’s, become facts.

 

[lpetrich]

They Predicted ‘The Crisis of 2020’ … in 1991. So How Does This End? - The New York Times - "Two scholars coined the term millennial and developed a fan base for their grim theories. Now, the surviving one sees a generational realignment happening in American politics that does not bode well for Republicans."

That's the Strauss-Howe generational theory, something that strikes me as very Procrustean. Peter Turchin and the Schlesongers did MUCH better there.

They called it the Crisis of 2020 — an unspecified calamity that “could rival the gravest trials our ancestors have known” and serve as “the next great hinge of history.” It could be an environmental catastrophe, they wrote, a nuclear threat or “some catastrophic failure in the world economy.”

That was in 1991.

He didn't think that 2020 was anything special, just a convenient round-numbered date.

More insightful than the date itself was the assertion that historical patterns pointed toward the arrival of a generation-defining crisis that would force millennials into the fire early in their adulthood. (Mr. Strauss and Mr. Howe were the first to apply that term to those born in the early 1980s because they would come of age around the year 2000.)

Mr. Howe thinks it no coincidence that boomers, especially the more conservative ones, have been more lax about the coronavirus, than younger generations.

Mr. Howe will admit to some disappointment himself on where Mr. Trump is on life’s pyramid: “I think thus far,” he said, “it’s fair to say that Trump has not grown into the role.”

One upside to the crises at the heart of these theories is the innovation they tend to produce — an economic and social program like the New Deal, or a public health discovery like the vaccine for polio. But so far the Trump administration has been incapable or unwilling to think big about the problems at hand, critics say.

“The really bad news is we are in the grip of an administration that sees everything as marketing, spin, branding,” said David Kaiser, a former professor at the Naval War College and a historian who is a fan of the Strauss and Howe theories. “And I don’t think is really capable of thinking through a problem and acting on it.”

This skepticism is shared by Steve Bannon, someone who was Trump's chief strategist back in 2017. He remembers how nobody in the admin took seriously the possibility that some big catastrophe would strike, and he was dismissed as a kook by a lot of Trump's staffers. Trump himself insisted that he was an optimist. SB responded that he was a realist.

Mr. Bannon said that instead of coming up with new programs to deal with the millions of people who may never get their old jobs back, the White House and its conservative allies were falling back on the kind of stimulus policies they purport to loathe.

Where were all the conservative businessmen who have insisted that the government get out of their way, Mr. Bannon asked? “I saw them all, once again, run to the government for bailouts,” he said.

LOL.

Strauss and Howe warned that the party in power in the 2020 disaster could find its out of power for a generation, like the Democrats in 1860 (the Civil War) and the Republicans in 1929 (the Great Depression).

If the pandemic doesn’t break the boomer generation’s grip on American government, some see hope that it will end the brand of conservatism that has thrived during their time in power.

“Where’s my copy of ‘Atlas Shrugged?’” Mr. Bannon asked, referring to the Ayn Rand novel that conservatives often cite for its heroic portrayal of individualism and self-determination. “It’s in the shredder.

 

[lpetrich]

Elizabeth Warren on Twitter: "There is a crisis within the crisis:
If we’re going to tackle this pandemic head-on, we can’t ignore its disproportionate effect on Black communities and the deep disparities that Black people have always faced in our health care system. https://t.co/UdkiXHPyGq" / Twitter
noting
As U.S. coronavirus deaths cross 100,000, black Americans bear disproportionate share of fatalities

• Black Americans continue to make up a disproportionate share of Covid-19 fatalities as the number of deaths from the coronavirus pandemic exceeds 100,000 in the U.S., according to an analysis of CDC data.
• Nearly 23% of reported Covid-19 deaths in the U.S. are African American as of May 20, even though black people make up roughly 13% of the U.S. population, according to the data.
• Conditions such as diabetes, hypertension and asthma that tend to plague African Americans more than other groups could contribute to more Covid-19 deaths. Income inequalities and disparities in access to health care tend to hurt minority and lower-income populations more than others.
• Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious disease expert and member of President Donald Trump’s coronavirus task force, said in April that the coronavirus outbreak is “shining a bright light” on how “unacceptable” the health disparities between blacks and whites are.

Welcome to the club. He's now pointing out what many others have pointed out.

 

[ZiprHead]

 

[lpetrich]

Fire, pestilence and a country at war with itself: the Trump presidency is over | Robert Reich | Opinion | The Guardian - "A pandemic unabated, an economy in meltdown, cities in chaos over police killings. All our supposed leader does is tweet"

On Saturday, he gloated about “the most vicious dogs, and most ominous weapons” awaiting protesters outside the White House, should they ever break through Secret Service lines.

Trump’s response to the last three ghastly months of mounting disease and death has been just as heedless. Since claiming Covid-19 was a “Democratic hoax” and muzzling public health officials, he has punted management of the coronavirus to the states.

Trump has claimed “no responsibility at all” for testing and contact-tracing – the keys to containing the virus. His new “plan” places responsibility on states to do their own testing and contact-tracing.

Trump is also awol in the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.

But he wants to seem like some great leader.

States Are Reopening, But Many Americans Say They Aren’t Rushing Back To Normal Life | FiveThirtyEight

Almost all states have now begun phased reopenings after shutting down nonessential businesses to slow the spread of the coronavirus. However, any dreams that life would return to its pre-pandemic normal do not appear to be coming true. Recent polling indicates that Americans are still spooked by the threat of COVID-19 and many won’t be resuming their old behaviors any time soon.

...
Instead of looking to get life back to normal, Americans seem to be taking to the new, low-contact ways of life foisted upon us by the pandemic. According to a May 11-17 Gallup poll, 44 percent of adults said they were picking up takeout food more often than they did a month ago. In late March and early April, only 26 percent said they were upping their takeout orders. Likewise, 36 percent of adults were taking more advantage of curbside pickup at stores (up from 19 percent in late March and early April), and 27 percent were having more virtual doctor’s appointments (up from 12 percent). And although it’s just one state, the MassINC poll also found that 41 percent of workers said they would prefer to work from home even after Massachusetts reopens.

Are Jobs Returning In Reopened States? | FiveThirtyEight

Although last week’s jobless claims declined at a faster rate (-13.2 percent) than they did the week before (-9.0 percent), the numbers involved remain immense by any historical standard:

There are a few shreds of encouraging news in the most recently compiled jobs data, though. For weeks, we’ve been waiting for the sheer number of people on temporary layoff or furlough — as opposed to permanent unemployment — to return to work and no longer show up in the official unemployment data. And as the economy begins to open up in 36 of those 42 states with shutdown orders, one place they might finally be appearing is in the number of continued unemployment claims.

Don’t Expect A Quick Recovery. Our Survey Of Economists Says It Will Likely Take Years. | FiveThirtyEight

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Arizona had two days of record cases on May 30 and May 31. Hospitalizations are also increasing. Luckily June 1 ended that stretch of new record cases.

Unfortunately, June 2 saw another record bump of over 5%. Still not huge growth leading to magnitudinal increases in a week or so, but they are definitely headed in the wrong direction.

 

[Emily Lake]

Arizona had two days of record cases on May 30 and May 31. Hospitalizations are also increasing. Luckily June 1 ended that stretch of new record cases.

Unfortunately, June 2 saw another record bump of over 5%. Still not huge growth leading to magnitudinal increases in a week or so, but they are definitely headed in the wrong direction.

Nah, Jun didn't end the stretch. There's a reporting lag on the weekends, so most of the time the weekend numbers don't really show up until Tuesday. Expect the weekly numbers to continue rising for a while.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Umm... May 30 and 31 are the weekend and had the highest new cases numbers... until June 2nd, today.

 

[funinspace]

Either way, Arizona is definitely catching air, and seem jealous of Alabama and Georgia numbers:
https://ktar.com/story/3216753/arizona-adds-more-than-1100-new-coronavirus-cases-in-daily-report/

The Arizona health department reported more than 1,100 new coronavirus cases Tuesday morning, the most in a single day, along with 24 additional deaths.

With 1,127 new cases, the state’s documented total increased to 21,250. The death count reached 941.

 

[Emily Lake]

Umm... May 30 and 31 are the weekend and had the highest new cases numbers... until June 2nd, today.

It's messy. IIRC, the May 30 numbers will be predominantly composed of May 29 diagnoses, from people tested on May 28. I dunno exactly though. I know that Mondays almost always look really low, and Tuesdays almost always have a really big jump. But the Tuesdays end up including the tests performed over the weekend, which were turned in on Monday, and show up in the data on Tuesday.

Honestly, I haven't figured out exactly why they can't get these all sorted as "based on date of testing". But it's not just Arizona, a lot of other states show a similar weekly seasonality.

Either way, the point is that Monday's "low" probably isn't representative of an actual decrease in cases, just a timing issue.